Rep. Steve Cohen tweet reveals secret daughter

The young woman with whom Tennessee Congressman Steve Cohen was exchanging bizarre tweets during the State of the Union address is, in fact, his daughter, POLITICO has learned.

Today, Cohen (D-Tenn.), gave a private news conference in his office with NBC and CBS, letting reporters there know that the woman who identified herself on Twitter as Victoria Brink is his daughter, whose existence he discovered three years ago, a spokesman from Cohen’s office told POLITICO on Thursday.

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”I Googled her mother, found out she had a child and the math looked pretty accurate,” Cohen told NBC News. “The mom told me we had a lot of catching up to do.”

Some of Cohen’s constituents were, at first, concerned about the tweets, believing that the politician should have been more focused on the president’s speech, Action News 5 reported. Cohen, however, couldn’t contain his excitement in hearing from his daughter.

“When she let me know she was watching the State of the Union address, I was thrilled that she wanted Steve Cohen to be part of her. I had such joy, that I couldn’t hold back from tweeting her,” he told NBC news.

When initially asked about the tweets, Cohen’s office said that Brink was a daughter of a longtime friend, according to Action News 5 of Memphis, Tenn.

The politician’s deleted tweets, which were archived by Politwoops, were subject to scrutiny when the young college student let him know that she saw him at the State of the Union. The politician tweeted back to the young woman: “nice to know you were watchin SOTU(state of the union).Happy Valentines beautiful girl. ilu”.

“Cohen was emotional while telling the story about his daughter, fought back tears, could feel genuine fatherly emotion,” tweeted NBC News reporter Luke Russert, who co-wrote the story, on Thursday.